Month: February 2015

Yes….I said spring. I am am hoping that if I say the word enough times, the atrocious weather here in the northeast will give up the ghost. As I write this on the last day of February, we are still under a foot to two feet of snow (depending on where you stand) and are waking up to temperatures in the teens, and have two snow storms looming on the horizon this week. We’ve all had enough.

March 1, 2015

Liz Beal Bowman

What an idea that retirement is looming! One of the down sides of self-employment is no 401k but I would probably die of boredom anyway. I do enjoy being a gardener despite the hard work. My friends say I should just train more people well and learn to point as so many of my fellow gardeners and landscapers do but it just isn’t me. I like my fingers in the dirt and my arms building stonewalls. Perhaps a few years from now the physicality will be less rewarding and I was groaning at last season’s end but that is because I had lost my dog to old age and lacked the discipline to do those walks. Now I have a young rescue pooch with much energy and am back to walks in the woods. I am looking forward to having the snow melt because I am tired of slipping and sliding. Just today, March 1st we got another few inches topped off by sleet. and so it goes. My long term goal is to get my columns into books (13 years worth) and maybe make headway as a garden writer. My daughter Erica, who lives in Jamaica Vermont, is a Garden Designer with her Masters from Cornell and she is writing for Horticulture Magazine among others, inspiring me to look that direction when I am done playing in the dirt. Spring is eventual. Enjoy the moment.

From Heidi Dolan Baldwin:

My news is that our daughter Sally and her family – 4 boys age 9,7,5,2 – have just moved to Conn from Hong Kong! and our other daughter Lacy is living in Richmond, Va with a 2 year old little boy. Bernard is still working, as am I. We spend a lot of time in Florida in the winter. Jamie Baxter, Linda LeSourd, Joan Johnson and Polly McTaggart are all here and it is fun sharing stories of EW.

February 28, 2015

It cheered me to read on Facebook this morning that after 17 years, Jennifer Dowling is retiring from her job at the Berkshire Taconic Foundation. Rather than retype all the information, you can read and hear Jennifer at the following : http://wamc.org/post/berkshire-taconic-foundation-president-retiring.

Her response to my email blast:

Hello everyone!

It’s been a while since I’ve been in touch…wonderful work at the Foundation is all consuming. Going to take a break for a bit in January and then re-engage in some way with my old haunts in the art world.

I’m always open for a visit from anyone headed to the Berkshires! Let me know!

Warm regards (all of us in the northeast really need them as we sit through another snow storm!)

Jennifer

I, myself, told my colleagues at school that this would be my last year of teaching full time. I’ve been at The Country School in Madison, CT since 1992. I find it hard to cut the cord completely so will rely on substituting next year to keep me connected to the kids. I’m looking forward to spending more time with John, our grandchildren, and trying my hand at writing children’s books. If I don’t try now, when will I?

New opportunities are looming for all of us and I’d love to hear about them. Let me know if you are retired, enjoying it, hating it or have gone off on to a new adventure. Send me an email….and please, pray for spring.